[Kafuuil]

[You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.]

Jumahat Leman’s old PC laptop hosts a delicious menu of free VSTs. Photo [You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.]; used with permission.
An old PC laptop could be relegated to the closet or (worse, since it’s highly toxic) landfill. But filled up with tasty freeware plug-ins, it’s a virtual studio full of tools and oddities. Via the feast of gear that is the [You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.], our friend Jumahat Leman aka uncle bigbrown artfully captures his budget software setup, described as follows:

• A 4+yrs old Acer laptop (a desktop replacement to be exact)
• Ableton Live 5.01 w/lots of freeware VSTs
• using same earphones/headphones/ToneportGx for recording

** My observation:
If you’re a “free VSTs/plugins” hunter/user like me, there’s tons of them available for download for the Wins platform in the worldwideweb. That’s where “cheap” Mac users/lovers (like me) are at a disadvantage with our OSX. So its always good to have a Wins machine at your disposal…
[You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.]

Jumahat Leman’s Mac becomes a digital guitar-ready desktop. Photo [You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.]; used with permission.
The Mac doesn’t get left out either, though. A G4 tower has become a virtual guitar stompbox and recording studio:

<ul> 9 yrs old Sawtooth “Earache” G4 Mac
Ableton Live 5.01 w/freeware plug-ins
$80 Toneport GX
old iPod earphones or $50 Sennheiser Headphones (for recording/monitoring/mixing)
**most times i load the “mixed songs” into the iPod to listen/compare/mix and check eq/volume.
(The guitar is a [You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.].)

If these visuals got your attention, there’s another lesson to be learned here. Not only does this visual illustration give you a sense of what his workflow is about and perhaps passes along some tips, but he uses photos and illustrations as a great promotional tool. It helps that Jumahat is a talented designer. I love his mini-portfolio, below. He also makes wonderful promotional posters and stickers. As I noted earlier this week, the ability to make something visually expressive that is meaningful to your music can be powerful - [You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.].

Or, to make a more important point, Jumahat has one of the only tasteful MySpace pages I’ve ever seen — and that’s a feat.

Happy weekend projects to everyone; hope this provides some inspiration.

[You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.]
[You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.], with more visual goodies





[You cannot see the link as you're not logged in. Click here to login or here to register.]